Texans’ defensive schemes are intentionally plain in the preseason

Try as we do to tell everyone not to pay any attention to preseason scores, some insist on analyzing them.

Tuesday at the team’s kickoff luncheon, Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips gave yet another reason against overanalyzing the preseason. Phillips said the defense has been more vanilla in the preseason so he can evaluate players through one-on-one matchups.

This doesn’t discount the positive things the Texans defense did in the preseason — in fact it might highlight some of them given the simplicity of the defense.

Phillips’ defense is predicated on the theory that simpler is better as long as what you do simply you do very, very well. It worked for the Texans’ defense last year and they’ll build on that this year. But they won’t be as plain in the regular season as they were during the preseason.

Avoiding schematic manipulations allows Phillips to find out where his defense’s weaknesses are and develop plans for how to hide them. It allows him to see exactly what each player he coaches can do.

It also means Texans fans shouldn’t worry that Drew Brees had a 115.2 passer rating and never got sacked. And neither should they worry about the holes in the run defense against San Fransisco. Worry if it happens next weekend.